Disease elimination

Heat treatment

Between two quarantine cycles, sugarcane cuttings are systematically subjected to a long thermotherapeutic treatment in hot water (48 hours at 25°C followed by 3 hours at 50°C) to eliminate the maximum amount of bacteria, fungi, insects and mites they are likely to harbour. Moreover, if a curable disease is detected, such as ratoon stunting disease, the varieties are cleaned by long thermotherapeutic treatment, then returned to a first quarantine cycle.

Apical meristem culture

If cuttings are infected by the sugarcane yellow leaf virus or the sugarcane streak mosaic virus, in vitro
culturing of virus-free apexes or meristems is required to obtain disease-free plants.